1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to controlling wireless communications using a multi-radio device, a backward compatible connectivity framework for wireless local area network (WLAN) offload, and a modem-centric architecture for WLAN offload.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple mobile devices. Base stations may communicate with mobile devices on downstream and upstream links. Each base station has a coverage range, which may be referred to as the coverage area of the cell. Many wireless industries and research institutes are working on development of multi-radio antenna systems in space-limited mobile devices. The mobile device may be laptops, ultra mobile personal computers (UMPCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets, and/or cellular phones. In the near future, mobile devices may require multiple antennas to support communications using multiple wireless protocols. These include but are not limited to Wi-Fi, WiMAX, WWAN (Cellular), Digital TV, Ultra-Wideband (UMB), Blue Tooth (BT), near field communication (NFC) and Global Positions System (GPS). Depending on the usage model, some of the combinations of these radios may require simultaneous operation in the same device or in close proximity to other devices.
Currently, operating systems and/or connection manager applications are designed to interface to devices which implement a single radio. Such operating systems may unnecessarily require a discrete connection point for each radio of a multi-radio device. Connection points may be wired or wireless, such as Bluetooth. Examples of wired connection points include Mobile Broadband Interface Model (MBIM)/Universal Serial Bus (USB) for WWAN; Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) for WLAN; Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) for Bluetooth; and Network Interface Controller (NIC) for Ethernet. In addition, the operating system may choose to prioritize the flow of data over particular radio paths by hardcoded policy built into the operating system. Further, application programming interface (API) sets supported by a device are typically statically defined for all environments.